Consider the Pemaquid Oyster

I am giving too much away with this post, I know.

 

Giving away the gem of a vacation destination that is Pemaquid, ME. This harbor in Mid-Coast Maine is still relatively unknown and quiet, unlike its southern neighbors like Ogunquit and Booth Bay that get crazy in the summer.

While we were there a few weeks ago, I got to reading one of my heros, MFK Fisher. She wrote this meditation on the life of an oyster called  Consider the Oyster. She also wrote Serve it Forth, How to Cook a Wolf, and The Gastronomical Me.  Julia Child, Ruth Reichl, and Alice Waters are all big fans (could you imagine having them as fans??). I love that she was a woman who wrote professionally about food before social media and the Food Network were around, proof that thinking and writing about food are timeless.

Around the time that MFK Fisher was writing her essays (the late 1930’s-1950’s), my husband’s grandparents were vacationing in Pemaquid. The town is nestled around a working harbor, and the sights, sounds and tastes of this place stay with you long after the sand is brushed off your sandals. It is old school, in the best possible way.

If you ever sit down to study a raw oyster list, and you see the word “Pemaquid” next to any of them, ORDER THEM. They are the best oysters on the planet. We had ours at the Contented Sole, one of my favorite restaurants in the world, along with Blackened Swordfish, Blackened Fish Burrito, and Clam Chowder with Chorizo.

 

This was right off the dock where we ate. Does it get more local?

The kids loved their strawberry smoothies. My husband and I loved our Maine microbrew beer.

Spicy x Two – Clam Chowder with Chorizo and Spicy Bloody Mary.

We had beach time too, of course:

This picture is a great reflection of my life: reading a book + holding a baby = the bulk of the last 7 years.  Also I am smiling my way through a moment with a strong willed Lucy who is pouting.  I wouldn’t want her any other way…love that girl. This was her last summer swimming in the rivers of North Conway, NH:

She said she really, really wanted the princess towel and that was why she was crying. But she is mellowing with age and she adores her sister.

 My new Kindergartener! Savoring the last summer with her before she is a big kid.

Hope you get to read MFK Fisher, and I hope you get to visit Maine.  But most of all, I hope you get to try a Maine oyster. All are food for the soul.

(Some of these photos were taken by Rob, so husband credit given here!)